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    Cheap small office build, 6PCs, 40/10 DSL

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    18 Posts 8 Posters 2.4k Views
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    • M
      messerchmidt
      last edited by

      Would go matx j3455, matx case, and add a dual intel lan card. 8gb ram is sufficient.

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      • M
        messerchmidt
        last edited by

        Keep an eye out of a cheap zoltac CI325 if you want cheap. Add ram and a 120gb ssd.

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        • M
          Mithrandir
          last edited by

          I've actually ordered APU2C4 bundle. I'll post my impressions when it comes :)

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          • M
            messerchmidt
            last edited by

            @Mithrandir:

            I've actually ordered APU2C4 bundle. I'll post my impressions when it comes :)

            not enough ram and that amd apu is obsolete. ok if you do not run squid+squidguard i guess

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            • W
              whosmatt
              last edited by

              @messerchmidt:

              not enough ram and that amd apu is obsolete. ok if you do not run squid+squidguard i guess

              For a 40/10 DSL connection?  It'll be more than enough.  I run a 45/5 VDSL connection on a tiny VM on a tiny low power ESXI server and have more than enough power for OpenVPN at full speed serving ~30 nodes or so in my home, 3 LAN segments.  Even 512MB RAM is enough for that use case.  OP specifically stated his use case and it didn't include proxy or IDS.  Even if it had, I still think the APU2C4 would be more than enough.

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              • JailerJ
                Jailer
                last edited by

                @messerchmidt:

                not enough ram and that amd apu is obsolete. ok if you do not run squid+squidguard i guess

                4GB of RAM is more than enough. I run Snort and pfBlockerNG with my APU2C4 and memory usage is normally around 12% to 20%.

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                • W
                  whosmatt
                  last edited by

                  @Jailer:

                  4GB of RAM is more than enough. I run Snort and pfBlockerNG with my APU2C4 and memory usage is normally around 12% to 20%.

                  Again and again I find myself baffled by why people think they need so much RAM to run pfSense.  Thanks for the real-world example.

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                  • M
                    messerchmidt
                    last edited by

                    squid+squidguard , with that many users, will need more then 4gb

                    the cpu will bottleneck clamav

                    my core2 e6420 @ 3.2ghz with 4gb ddr2 is enough for me alone on 250/20 cable, but has issues when heavy load as per snort and clamav in squid on large transfers

                    got a s1366 with a 6 core xeon and 12gb ddr3 that will become my pfsense box

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                    • M
                      Mithrandir
                      last edited by

                      Till last month I was running monowall on Pentium ii 300Mhz with 384MB RAM. I won't run squid here, just OpenVPN which will be used rarely.

                      I think APU2C4 is overkill for my needs, but I like form factor and consumption.
                      It should also be future proofed if higher speeds become available in my area.

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                      • P
                        pfBasic Banned
                        last edited by

                        @whosmatt:

                        @Jailer:

                        4GB of RAM is more than enough. I run Snort and pfBlockerNG with my APU2C4 and memory usage is normally around 12% to 20%.

                        Again and again I find myself baffled by why people think they need so much RAM to run pfSense.  Thanks for the real-world example.

                        It depends on what you're doing with it.

                        My system pretty much always has 50-60% of 8GB in use.

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                        • JailerJ
                          Jailer
                          last edited by

                          @pfBasic:

                          It depends on what you're doing with it.

                          My system pretty much always has 50-60% of 8GB in use.

                          I agree 100%. I only offered my example of what could be expected on a slow connection with a couple of packages running. YMMV definitely applies here.

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                          • W
                            whosmatt
                            last edited by

                            @pfBasic:

                            It depends on what you're doing with it.

                            My system pretty much always has 50-60% of 8GB in use.

                            Agreed.  I was just responding specifically to the OP's specific use case and the apparent knee-jerk reaction regarding the hardware (and specifically the RAM) required.  Obviously you can use a fair amount of RAM.  But that doesn't mean you need it to run a pfSense firewall.  The packages will soak it up, no doubt.  But those are optional.

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                            • ?
                              Guest
                              last edited by

                              In total ~200 Euro incl. VAT.

                              APU2C4 bundle with 16 Gb or 32 GB might be coming also on 200 Euro - 220 Euro here in Germany
                              and the Varia store is selling and shipping world wide!

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